Google Hangouts to start heading into the sunset in October

Google's video chatting tool is going away for some users later this year.

For G Suite customers, Google Hangouts will officially retire in October, and Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet will take its place as the next-generation tool for team communication, according to a G Suite blog post. Individual consumers can still use Google Hangouts, possibly until 2020.

Starting April 16, G Suite users will be able to use Chat online and via phone apps. Users can also disable classic Google Hangouts before October at a time of their choosing. The Hangouts setting page will be renamed to Hangouts Meet. The blog post suggests users to move to Chat and Meet between April and September this year.

This comes after Google in November said it would kill off Hangouts in 2020. In 2017, Google said it was "evolving" Hangouts to focus on Meet, a video conferencing feature, and Chat, a messaging platform and Slack competitor.

Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Google Hangouts will be terminated for all users in 2020.